The field of this invention relates to sewing of patterns on fabric, and more particularly to a border hoop that is to be used in conjunction with a border of a guilt when performing sewing operations on the quilt.
A quilt has long been known as a bed cover constructed of an inner layer of cloth and an outer layer of cloth with a stuffing material located therebetween. Common forms of such stuffing are down, cotton, wool, etc. The inner and outer layers of cloth are secured together through a series of stitches which are located in a lined arrangement to form a pattern.
It is common in the sewing of a quilt to utilize a pair of round hoops which are located in an overlapped arrangement tightly binding the quilt therebetween with a portion of the quilt being tightly stretched within the confined area of the overlapped hoops. It is within this area of the quilt that the sewing operation is performed. When the sewing operation is completed within the area confined by the hoops, the hoops are to be disengaged from the quilt and moved to a new position with the securing procedure repeated.
Round hoops work satisfactorily through most of the area of the quilt. However, when it comes to the border of the quilt, a different type of hoop needs to be employed and that is what is referred to as a border hoop. The border hoop, instead of being round, is generally U-shaped with the straight edge of the border to be attached to a strip of fabric which is secured to a support rod. The support rod is mounted across the apex area of the U-shaped border hoop.
In the past, such U-shaped border hoops were constructed of two U-shaped members which are mounted on the support rod. It is common for the members to just be mounted together with no pre-established spacing being arranged therebetween. There is no adjustability as to the spacing between the hoop members. Therefore, if the quilt is formed to have any significant amount of thickness, it is very difficult to bind the quilt in position between the hoop members. There is a strong need to construct a border hoop for quilting where the border hoop is adjustable to compensate for different thicknesses of quilts.